{"href":"https://api.simplecast.com/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcauldron.simplecast.com%2Fepisodes%2Fbyzantium-back-on-top-for-now-the-battle-f9d6d3c3","width":444,"version":"1.0","type":"rich","title":"Byzantium Back On Top… For Now - The Battle of Nineveh","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/cb3ebe/cb3ebeb2-c6be-4f88-b909-98bc5ae33e03/06442a34-e72d-4c95-b40a-9c81341bfd09/1544464794-artwork.jpg","thumbnail_height":300,"provider_url":"https://simplecast.com","provider_name":"Simplecast","html":"<iframe src=\"https://player.simplecast.com/06442a34-e72d-4c95-b40a-9c81341bfd09\" height=\"200\" width=\"100%\" title=\"Byzantium Back On Top… For Now - The Battle of Nineveh\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"></iframe>","height":200,"description":"In this Quick Hit I cover the victory of the Byzantine army under Heraclius over Persian Sassanid forces. On a plain not far from the rubble of the ancient Assyrian City of Nineveh, Byzantine cataphracts used superior numbers and generalship to bring an end to a decades long war with their eastern enemy. The end of the centuries long conflict known as the Roman-Persian Wars left a power vacuum in the Middle East and it would not be long before that vacuum was filled. An exhausted Byzantium and a crippled Persia meant there was little to slow the rise of the Arabic armies and the march of Islam. \n\n"}